Utinam Esset Realis
by theapexpredat0r
Summary: Kaname Tatsuya signs the contract with Kyuubei and apprentices under Akemi Homura, who sees Kaname Madoka in everything and everyone and probably always will.


The first time you teach him, he is very bad at adopting a fighting mindset and he cries when you take him out for his first night wraith-hunting.

"Shut up," you tell him. "They're going to hear us. They're going to come after us because you're feeling sad, and that's not what you want, is it? We're supposed to be ambushing them, not broadcasting our location to every wraith in a hundred-kilometer radius."

He sniffs loudly, but he tones it down.

You sigh to yourself. You guess he can't really help it. After all, he's only twelve years old and he just recently became a magical boy, so you can't expect him to be fearless and ready to go. You remember your first time becoming a magical girl and fighting the evils of this world. You wouldn't have traded it for anything. Now you'd trade it for the first thing someone offered you.

"Listen," you say. "You remember Madoka, right?"

"...yeah. They always told me she wasn't real."

You've had this conversation with him more than a few times. He knows where you stand on the subject. "Yeah, well, they were wrong. Even if no one else knows that, right? You and I, we both know it. She's there, and she's watching the both of us, so we're going to get this right, alright? For her. So we don't embarrass her." It's a thinly veiled attempt at pretending you don't miss her, and Tatsuya knows it. His grip tightens on the Colt M1911 and you can tell there's fire in his heart.

Otherwise, you wouldn't have bothered teaching him.

When you head home that night he's covered in blood.

It will all go away once he transforms back, but he's not doing so and it's got you curious. It's not like anyone's watching. The both of you have defeated the wraiths and are on your way back to your homes where you'll both crawl into bed and try and get a good night's sleep before waking up in the morning and facing the new day with tired eyes and even more tired joints.

He keeps rubbing at his eyes. He's tired.

You turn your eyes back to look ahead of you again. He doesn't need your criticism.

"You know, you remind me of her."

The two of you are sitting on the roof of a skyscraper in the busiest part of the city. There's no way two people could get up here without security clearance, and even then you'd have a hard time, but there are no cameras up here either and the feeling of the warm breeze through your hair was just too great of an opportunity to miss. Besides, it's not as scary for a girl with wings so enormous they'd fill a room.

"...why?"

"Your bow, for one thing." He gestures to the weapon stored inside your soul gem. "She always used to use that, didn't she? Don't answer. I know she did. I see her in my dreams all the time." He looks up at the sky with a wistful smile, as if directing the expression at a sister four feet from him instead of a sister that's everywhere and nowhere at once. "And your ribbon, of course."

The fingers of your left hand subconsciously rise up to touch the ribbon gently. "Yes...she gave it to me."

You don't know why you're expecting him to scoff at that. He believes you. He knows that you really were Madoka's best friend, and that she did exist, at one time, and that she watches over you and keeps you safe from harm. You're just so used to imagining the ridicule you'd get if you said such a thing to anyone except Tatsuya.

He elbows you gently, a wide smile on his face. He's so handsome. Just like Madoka was so beautiful. He's a tall, lanky thing, metabolism of a chipmunk, and it's even worse because he's always running around fighting wraiths. You're always worried that he's going to fall over some day due to low blood sugar or something of the sort. You don't know what you would do if that happened. Probably race him to the hospital right away, weird magical boy DNA or no weird magical boy DNA.

"She's really proud of you, you know that?"

"...is she?"

"Yeah. She tells me so."

Your name is Akemi Homura, you are twenty-two years old, and you are this close to tears.

Your name is Kaname Tatsuya, and you wish you weren't making all of this up. You don't know who Madoka is and you already forget what you made your wish for.


End file.
